Before Me
by Quirky Koala
Summary: Fourth and final part of the Jane Doe series. SaraCatherine romance.


Disclaimer: Not mine, not making any money.

Warning: This story involves two women in a loving relationship. If this is not your cup of tea or is illegal where you live, please don't read any further.

A/N: Not beta'd and therefore all spelling mistakes, typos and British-isms are my fault.

A/N2: This is it – the final part of the Jane Doe series. I've brought the characters to where I wanted to see them and as such I feel if I went any further I would just be making the story longer than it needed to be. The plot bunnies keep filling my head with ideas and I have a few half finished stories on my hard drive, as I've finished uni for the summer (unless I have to do re-sits) I'm going to try and write more. I may even attempt some Sassy fic, as the plot bunnies seem to like Sofia. I'd like to thank everybody who gave me feedback, it helps a lot to know people are reading and enjoying mt stories.

Title: Before Me

Catherine and Sara walked into CSI headquarters the next night with a smile on their faces. They had made love on Sara's initiation and the brunette had to admit she was feeling good about herself for the first time in ages. It was as if a weight had been lifted off her shoulders, she felt lighter and for the first time she didn't care what anyone thought of her.

So what if the lab techs knew she'd had a shitty childhood? It was none of their business and if they couldn't cope with the fact it was their problem not hers. Taking Catherine's hand and squeezing it, she made her way to Grissom's lab.

Catherine was happy, and she was surprised to acknowledge that the reasons she was happy was because Sara Sidle was happy. The only person in the past that had made her happy by just a smile was her daughter. Not wanting to analyse herself too much she tried to make out the small blonde figure waiting in Grissom's office. Having glass walls had some advantages.

Catherine frowned at the vaguely familiar person; she was small with blonde hair coming down to her waist. Checking her memory she thought it might have been the woman from Miami…she had a funny French name but a southern accent.

Sara knocked on the door and Catherine was puzzled to see a wide smile break out on her face as she entered without waiting for permission.

"So what brings you to my saloon, cowgirl?" Sara asked in a fake southern drawl, smiling wide.

"How many times do I have to tell you I'm from Carolina not Texas, Sidle?" The blonde said turning around, she was trying to look annoyed but the smile trying to break onto her face stopped it form being effective.

"At least once more." Sara replied stepping up to her woman and giving her a hug.

Catherine caught the confused look Grissom shot at her and shrugged in reply. She had stopped just inside the door when Sara had started to speak and watching the interaction she had felt a burning start in the pit of her stomach. Who was this woman and why hadn't she been told Sara knew her.

"Well, I was going to introduce Calleigh and say that you might know her, Catherine, from the case you had in Miami, but it appears that you know Sara." Grissom addressed Calleigh when the two women broke apart.

"Yeah, sorry I should have mentioned it but I didn't know I'd be working with Sara."

"It's not a problem, actually it saves me from introducing you and it lets me leave you in Sara's capable hands. I've called a meeting in layout room 1, but as you'll remember I had no dealings with the Anderson and Roberts cases as I was in Rome speaking at a convention." Grissom said dismissing them.

"Why didn't you let me know you were coming?" Sara asks.

"I didn't know until yesterday, it was a last minute thing, when a search spit out your cases and we realised we had a match, Horatio told me I was coming and I had an hour to pack my bags." The blonde replied.

Catherine walked beside them feeling like a third wheel, she had been watching the interaction closely with a growing feeling which if she wasn't mistaken was jealousy. She almost missed the smaller woman turning to her.

"Catherine, isn't it? I remember you from Miami. I'm Calleigh, it seems every time we meet it's not under the best of circumstances." She smiled.

"Yeah, it would seem so. I hope we can help here." Catherine tried to smile back but she knew it was strained.

They entered the lab to find the guys sat around waiting for them. They entered and all looked to Catherine to start as she was the most senior in the room, they were all surprised when she motioned for Sara to take the floor.

"Erm…Guys this is Calleigh Duquesne, she's with the Miami crime lab." Sara introduced her to Nick, Warrick and Greg. "She's here to review the evidence we collected on the Anderson and Roberts case. If you remember, it was an unsolved case around four month's ago. Catherine and I were the primary on the case but you all had a role in the evidence gathering and processing. We're to co-operate fully in the investigation, I don't need to remind you all that we have a repeat murderer out there until we solve this case and catch the guy." With this she stood back and let Calleigh take the floor.

"Thanks Sara. What we know on this case so far isn't much. Two days ago my people were called to a DB at a hotel. A young woman, mid to late 20's. No evidence of a forced entry, but evidence of a struggle before the vic was suffocated. What we do know is that the vic went on a date earlier in the day, we interviewed the man, a…Thomas Crowcroft, he confirms that he walked her back to the hotel room, but never went in, he dropped her off and then went back home. His prints aren't in the room and his housemate confirms he arrived back around ten pm. We walked the room and apart from the vic's prints all we found were the prints of numerous hotel staff and previous guests, you must know how bad hotel rooms are for evidence." She paused as they all mumbled their agreement. "My colleague Delko searched the database and spotted your two cases and as you've probably guessed I was sent to liase with you. At this moment any information you have will be gratefully received."

Warrick, Nick and Greg quickly fill Calleigh in on the information and evidence they had a hand in and then head off to the cases Grissom gave them that night.

"So I have you and Catherine to myself all night?" Calleigh whispered leaning into the brunette and slowly raking her eyes down the lean body.

"It would seem so." Sara replied rolling her eyes at the obvious come on.

"Well that's an opportunity I can't pass up. Lead on Miss Sidle."

Catherine frowned at the flirting, it really wasn't doing anything for her burning jealousy. They went to the archive to sign out the evidence and then returned to the lay out room to review it with Calleigh.

If Catherine had thought the night couldn't get any worse for her, she was wrong. Calleigh flirted relentlessly with Sara all through the night, Catherine was at the point that she was considering seeing a dentist she had ground her teeth so much. She regularly offered to make the coffee and sandwich run just so she could get out of the room.

As the night went on and Calleigh, unused to the night shifts, started to get tired, the flirty remarks lessened. Catherine had 30 minutes of tolerable time with the blonde, until the flirty remarks turned to flirty touches, caressing her arm, touching her hand and squeezing her knee, and the senior CSI went to a whole new level of jealousy. By the end of the shift Catherine was having mental images of breaking both of the blonde's hands.

"Shifts over!" Catherine said maybe a little too happily.

"You must be happy." Sara said to the Miami CSI. "Normally on days, you must be looking forward to going to bed."

"Working a night shift is the least I'd do to spend the night with you!" Calleigh flirted again. "I was actually going to ask you if you knew somewhere to get breakfast."

"I know someplace we can go." The brunette said ignoring the first flirty comment and collecting the evidence together to take back to the archive.

"Great, could you do me a favour though? I haven't had time to get a hire car yet, I didn't have much time to get to the hotel and then get here to meet Grissom. Could I ride with you and then get you to drop me at my hotel?" Calleigh asked.

"Yeah, no problem. Are you coming with us Cat?" Sara asked turning to the other woman and grinning.

"I think I'll pass." Catherine replied picking up the evidence and heading out of the room without saying anything more.

"Erm…you head to the car and I'll meet you there." Sara said passing her car keys to the North Carolina native and heading out after her lover.

Sara caught up with Catherine in the archive and from the way she was slamming things around, she knew someone was upset about something.

Catherine herself was fuming, she'd just spent 8 hours in a confined space, watching a woman she didn't know but was obviously close to her lover, flirt with her every chance she got. Her anger was bubbling and she wanted to tear strips off someone. That was when Sara walked in.

"Catherine, what up?" Sara asked really not knowing what was up with the older woman.

"What's up? What is Calleigh to you?"

"She's a friend. We met at a conference, she was drunk and I saved her from a guy that wouldn't take no for an answer. We've met up a few times since and we have become friends." Sara explained not seeing where this was leading.

"Friends don't flirt like that, and you were encouraging it." Catherine spat out.

"That's just how Calleigh acts around me, there's nothing to it and we've never been anything more." Sara tried to placate Catherine.

"Well, I don't like it." The blonde said, she could almost feel herself pouting. It seemed that Sara saw it as a step to far as well because she threw her arms up as if in surrender but the fire sparked in her eyes.

"What? So it's fine for Greg to flirt with me at ever opportunity but as soon as Calleigh does I've to tell her to stop?" Sara looked really annoyed now. "Y'know what? Even if Calleigh and I were lovers then there wouldn't be much you could do about it Catherine. You've made it pretty clear what you want from me, and that's just a fuck buddy, therefore you forfeit any right in who I see."

With this Sara stormed from the room, leaving a tearful Catherine to think about her actions. She had been childish she knew that, demanding Sara change her behaviour around a woman she had known for years just because she was jealous. Plus Sara was right, it wasn't like she could claim any ownership on the brunette, it had been Catherine's choice for their relationship to be no strings attached…in fact she had said that she didn't want a relationship.

So why had she been so upset to see Calleigh's obvious interest in the brunette and why was she so upset now? What had changed?

Catherine freely admitted that she liked having Sara in hers and Lindsay's life. Her daughter adored the brunette and she was pretty sure that Sara liked Lindsay. At one point Catherine had been worried that Lindsay was turning into an angry preteen, she was getting into trouble at school and there had even been once she had been brought to the lab by the police. Now, with Sara interest and guidance she seemed to have an interest that didn't involve getting into trouble. The older woman didn't want to think what would happen if Sara suddenly stopped taking an interest in her daughter…she didn't want to think about a time Sara didn't want anything to do with either Willow's women…so what did that mean?

Catherine put her head in her hands as the importance of her feelings hit her, it mean that this 'thing' with Sara had gone further than she had wanted it to go! She cared for the brunette more than she wanted to…she had feelings for her. Now the only question was what was she going to do about it? Sara had hinted that she wanted more than their 'friends with benefits' arrangement, but was that still true? Especially after Catherine's tantrum tonight, she wouldn't be surprised if she hadn't pushed Sara into Calleigh's arms. Sighing as she put all the evidence back in its evidence tray Catherine left the building, there was nothing she could do about it now.

Catherine sat in the locker room on her next shift feeling rough, she had hardly slept the night before, thoughts of Sara in Calleigh's arms interrupted her sleep every time she closed her eyes. She had psyched herself up to talk to Sara today, she was going to talk to the brunette about her feelings…apologise for her behaviour the day before and ask her if it wasn't too late to take make their arrangement into a relationship.

Taking a deep breath Catherine went in search of her lover. Greg directed her to layout room number one and as she approached she sees Calleigh and Sara in the room. The small blonde was leaning into Sara as she spoke, as Catherine watched Sara laughed looking fondly at the other woman. It was only a second before every word Catherine had agreed to say to Sara left her thoughts and the familiar anger and jealousy hit boiling point again.

A stony mask settled onto Catherine's face as she pushed through the lab door. She didn't notice Sara's face fall as she saw the look on her lovers face, but she did see Calleigh squeezing the brunette's hand and it only added to her resentment.

"Erm…I sent some information to my boss just before I came on shift but I was wondering if I could see the CCTV footage from the hotel, if you have it." The Miami CSI asked breaking the tension. "I looked at the footage from Miami and, it's a long shot, but I was hoping to see a recognisable face."

"No problem." Sara said looking the evidence boxes until she found the tapes.

Three hours and lots of coffee later they are all going bog eyed. They were just about to give up when Calleigh tensed up and asked for the tape to be rewound, as a group of people walk by the camera she hit pause button, pointing out a man in a hotel uniform.

"He's a hotel employee, we interviewed him as his fingerprints were in the room but he delivered room service to the woman the night she was killed." Sara replied.

"I'm sure he's in our footage…Can I have a copy of the interview?" She asks pulling out her cell phone.

"Sure."

Things went pretty quick from their, Calleigh called Horatio in Miami and after sending the CCTV footage and the interview with the suspect they got confirmation that it was the same guy. Catherine called Brass and he went over to the address they had registered for him. Unsurprisingly when Brass called back it was to say that he no longer lived at that address, which wasn't surprising if he now worked at a hotel in Miami.

It was then just a case of waiting until they had some news from Miami. They received bits of updates. Delko went to the hotel to find that the perp hadn't been in work the day before but he did manage to get an address for him. When they raided the address they found that it was fake, but showing the guy that owned it a picture of the perp he identified him as his sisters boyfriend and taking a chance they went to visit the girlfriend only to find the perp saying goodbye to his girl.

He stuck to his story saying that he wasn't guilty; he was so genuine that they almost believed him. It was only when he was confronted by the evidence and told that the DA would ask for the needle that he confessed. His entire demeanour changed as he calmly told everyone in the room how he had noticed the women when they came into the hotel, from their he had stalked them, watched them, noted their routine. He had access to their files so he'd known how long he had before he had to act and then when he was ready, he put his plan into action.

Horatio had told them that it was almost scary to watch. It's not often that a CSI gets to interview a psychotic serial killer, but he truly believed that they had just caught one. Thanking Sara and Catherine for their help he told Calleigh that he expected her back on their next shift, before hanging up.

"Well, another case closed." Calleigh said, again breaking the tense silence. "Sara, you want to go and tell Grissom?"

"Sure." Sara replied looking shocked and a little warily as she looked between the two women. Not having an excuse to stay she left.

The blonde watched Catherine collecting the evidence and storing it back in its boxes.

"There is nothing between us y'know? We met a couple of years back at a conference. I was letting my hair down and drank too much, I was being pestered by some guy at the bar, he didn't understand the word no and Sara stepped in and saved me. I tried to seduce her as she helped me back to my room but it didn't work. The next morning I noticed her eating alone at the hotel restaurant and went up to say thanks. That entire weekend, despite my best efforts, she knocked me back. We've met up a few times since, again at conferences and her answers always been the same…including last night." Calleigh paused for a second to see if Catherine was listening. "The second weekend she knocked me back she told me there was a blonde that she worked with back in Las Vegas, she was hung up on her. She thought the woman hated her guts, but she really liked her and she said she liked challenges."

Catherine was paying attention now, she was frowning as she tried to take in what Calleigh was saying. For years Sara'd had this woman, this beautiful, intelligent woman making it clear that she wanted a relationship with her but she had turned her down. Even though at the time they barely tolerated each other.

"Sara told me about your 'arrangement' over breakfast." She didn't sound to impressed by the news. "I warn you now Catherine, you should make your decision soon and stop stringing her along as there are lots of people out their that want Sara Sidle and that would treat her a hell of a lot better, and sooner or later she'll realise that."

"And let me guess, you are top of that list?" Catherine said bitterly.

"Yep, but she already knows that. Sara is a mysterious mix of passion and intellect all tightly guarded in a hard shell. She doesn't let many people through that shell, and even though she acts like she doesn't need anyone she desperately needs to be loved. She guards her heart behind the thickest wall of all, but every now and then she trusts someone enough to let them in. These select few she offers her heart to, hoping that they will accept that gift and guard it while offering her their own."

Catherine stood processing Calleigh's words and hoping that she understood what the other woman was saying.

"So you think she'd offer me her heart if I asked her?"

"No." The Miami CSI said shocking the blonde. "She's already stood their offering it to you, all you have to do is realise that, reach out and take it."

"It's more complicated than that, I have a daughter to think about!"

"Lindsay and Sara are already guarding each other hearts." Calleigh stated with conviction. She laughed when she saw the shocked expression on the other woman's face at the fact that she knew Lindsay's name. "I sat for 3 hours yesterday hearing Sara gush about how smart and funny Lindsay was and all about the go-kart. Y'know Sara's thinking of buying a real car for Lindsay as their next project."

"What?" Catherine yelped as Calleigh laughed, she'd got the reaction she wanted.

Calleigh picked up a stack of photocopied files and stored them in her briefcase.

"Thanks for your help with the case." She said walking out of the lab and leaving the other woman with her thoughts.

Calleigh caught up with Sara in Grissom's office and said their goodbyes. Wrapping things up with Grissom she had then retired to her favoured lab to do the paperwork. She spent the entire shift hoping that Catherine would seek her out while fearing looking for the other woman herself.

She was disappointed when her shift ended without any sight of the blonde. She briefly thought of dropping around to Catherine's house on her way home, but decided it was a bad idea. She was just leaving the locker room when her mobile phone rang. Not looking at the caller ID she flipped it open.

"Sidle."

"Hi Sara, it's Catherine." She paused for a moment, Sara wondered if she was expecting her to say something, although the difficulty breathing that suddenly seemed to be affecting her made that hard. "I was wondering, that's if you want to, erm…would you come over on your way home?"

"Sure…of course. I'll be there in a few minutes."

Sara made the entire drive to Catherine's trying to slow her breathing and making herself concentrate on the road rather than why Catherine wanted to see her.

She was stood on the doorstep trying to get the nerve to knock when the door was opened and she was unceremoniously pulled into the house by the front of her jacket. Sara looked at Catherine taking in the black evening dress that the red head was dressed in. It hugged every perfect curve without making her look cheap or tawdry. After Sara's eyes had lustfully scanned Catherine's body the two women locked eyes and the brunette saw that rather than being angry at being looked at that way, she was happy to have piqued Sara's interest.

It was only when Catherine grabbed her hand and started leading her through to the dining room that Sara noticed all the lights in the house had been dimmed and as they got to the dinning room the only lights were a number of candles set out around the room and one in the middle of the table. It was set out for a romantic dinner for two.

"Wha…What's all this for?" Sara stuttered.

"Calleigh told me some home truth's before she left." Catherine admitted, standing in front of Sara and slipping her arms around her waist.

"I told her to keep out of it." Sara said groaning.

"It's needed to be said so I would open my eyes and see what I had…and what I was about to loose." Catherine looked down in shame. "When all this started all I wanted was someone to help me…scratch an itch. I wanted a warm body to lie next to me at night, but…without me realising, it's changed, I want more. Lindsay loves you, and I - I ache when you're not here. I find myself stopping when I'm out shopping and wondering what you'll think of the things I'm buying and now…I can't think of my life without you in it."

Catherine paused, taking a deep breath and waiting for Sara to say something. When moments passed without comment she tentatively met Sara's eyes to see a dumbfounded and disbelieving look on the younger woman's face. The blonde knew that she would have to say the words for the brunette to believe her.

"What I'm trying to say is that I love you." Catherine said holding her gaze. "And I want to try this relationship thing, if you'll have me after all I've put you through."

Sara looked at Catherine opening and shutting her mouth soundlessly, her eyes filled with tears and she buried her head in Catherine's shoulder. A moment later she raised her head, tears running down her face.

"You love me?" Sara asked.

"Yes."

"You want a relationship?"

"If you do!"

"I do…I do." Sara said, pleased when a huge smile broke out on Catherine's face.

The red head reached up and wiped the tears of Sara's cheeks. Looking into each other's eyes they sealed their future with a kiss.

The End


End file.
